How Jeremy Corbyn and Labour can still save the Remain campaign

I hope Seumas Milne has been re-reading his GK Chesterton. There he will have found Labour's strap line for the Labour Party campaigning for the next ten days until the EU referendum: "we are the people of Labour; and we have not spoken yet."

Some might say that Labour's high command haven't had a chance – a Loughborough University study assesses that only 4 per cent of TV coverage has featured Labour figures. But this is a deeper seated problem than the guests the broadcasters invite on to shows, or even the failure of the Remain campaign to field Labour figures – it is a failure by Labour to communicate competently.

Voters are unclear about what Labour's position on the referendum actually is. To some extent this reflects the truth - Jeremy Corbyn is no fan of the European Union. He opposed membership of the Common Market in the seventies and since he hasn't changed his politics in the last 40 years voters can be forgiven for believing that he hasn't here either.

The lacklustre Labour campaign has given credence to Labour's ambivalence. Although Alan Johnson was appointed referendum campaign supremo last year, the Labour campaign proper only started after the local elections in May. The strength of Labour's local organisation - and its network of councillors and activists - were untapped.

And it's not as if they didn't have a theme that resonated with working people - who wants to live in a country run by the most Right-wing politicians? It wouldn't just be a case of welfare cuts - it would be a labour market red in tooth and claw. And there was no need to invent a caricature Mr Burns-like figure since Boris, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage will more than do. A bit of class war has been desperately needed - Brexit would be a victory for the boss class.

That is a campaign just made for Jeremy Corbyn's very real appeal to younger voters - he brought them into the Labour Party and now it's time for them to be the footsoldiers of the Remain campaign. Ten days of the excitement and appeal that he demonstrated in the leadership campaign are devoutly to be desired. His appearance on Channel 4's The Last Leg - including the fur coat and white Bentley - showed a willingness to search for new audiences for politics, even at the expense of merciless mockery. More please.

Time, too, for Corbyn to cash in his relationship with Vice. Not because Vice is a mass broadcaster, but because it is a trusted brand for the young people who are most likely to support Remain yet least likely to vote at all. Every single way to get them to the ballot must be used. Grime stars are reluctant to dabble in politics, but this is about the kind of country Britain wants to be - will the future be London or Clacton?

I don't read minds, but I think I know what Novelist or Skepta would say. Now is the time to get them out the same way that Plastician has been on Facebook and Lethal Bizzle on Snapchat. These are the contacts that junior staffers have rather than the political leaders. Time to put them in charge. After all, they will have to endure the horrors of the UK outside the EU, a reversal of King Lear: "The youngest hath borne most. We that are old/Shall never see so much, nor live so long."

This should be the task of the next ten days - focusing on those most likely to vote Remain. Twelve million graduates. Nine million Londoners. Six million union members. 450,000 teachers. 440,000 civil servants. Almost all instinctively opposed to Farage and Gove's Britain.

What are the messages that will shift their votes and, as important, encourage them to turn out? Who are the trusted message carriers they will listen to and the channels they can be reached on. Should this all have been done before? Yes. Is this time to panic? Yes. Will it be alright on the night? Yes. But only if ten days of relentless work starts now.